Speaking at Capital Rocks! in aid of Help a London Child, where both Cole and Dixon enjoyed a charity dinner, Cole suggested taking Dixon on board over Arlene Phillips was a big mistake.

‘We have world class dancers, a good production unit, I say take it back to the way it used to be. Smaller maybe’, he told Metro.

‘Too many judges can spoil the mixed’, he said.

But Dixon says don’t blame her for not having the Cheryl Cole effect.

Prickly after her first run on the series, Dixon, 31, insists she will return next year despite heavy criticism of her vague judging comments.

‘I don’t worry about the ratings. That’s not what I am there for’, she said.

‘From my point of view, Strictly is a successful brand, it always has been and always probably will be.’

But Cole, 33, warned producers it is money that will bring in viewers not pretty faces.

‘If the BBC want to compete with X-Factor it is down to budgets.’

‘ITV have massive budgets, massive advertising revenues. They got millions off the advertising and not to mention from the 10 million phone calls.’

‘It’s incredible what kind of budgets they have and they produce a show to reflect that. With the BBC we do a show that the public pay for. You’re never going to be able to compete on that scale’, he said.

For now he said, they were all doing the best they can with what they are given.

‘X-Factor’s got the money and they can spend it on Robbie Williams and Whitney Houston.’

‘For the most part BBC do a good job’ he said. But Cole warns: ‘If producers had bigger budgets they could do a whole lot more.’